Researcher in political communication and misinformation joins Loughborough University

5 February 2020

Researcher in political communication and misinformation joins Loughborough University

He will be based in the Online Civic Culture Centre (O3C) as a visiting postdoctoral researcher, after being awarded a prestigious 18-month scholarship by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

The O3C enables teams of researchers and PhD candidates to work together on issues of misinformation, disinformation and the rise of hate speech and intolerance online. Established in 2018 through funding from the University’s Adventure research initiative, O3C has hosted multiple events and published a high-profile survey report on news sharing on UK social media.

During his time at Loughborough, Johannes will be working on a project about the role of ordinary citizens in the spread and effects of mis- and disinformation on social media.

Johannes was previously a research and teaching assistant at the University of Zurich and his research focuses on political psychology and media effects.

His work has been published in some of the most prestigious journals in communication science and political science such as Communication Research, Political Communication, Journalism, and Journal of Common Market Studies.

On his appointment, Johannes said: “I am looking forward to working together with outstanding scholars at the University on the important topic of political mis-and disinformation on social media.

“I look forward to a fruitful collaboration with outstanding researchers from different disciplines to learn from each and produce better research.”

Professor Andrew Chadwick, Professor of Political Communication and Director of the Online Civic Culture Centre (O3C) at Loughborough University, said: “We are delighted to welcome Johannes Kaiser to O3C to work on our existing datasets and to generate his own research projects. He brings terrific expertise in the analysis of misinformation on social media and we look forward to collaborating with him.”